Welcome to the Games Beaten 2016 thread! In this thread, we list and discuss what games we've beaten this year.

Per Racketboy tradition, this thread is not a competition, not a place where we hold to hard and fast rules about what games can count, when, or why, etc. The only expectation is that you perhaps talk a bit about what you've beaten: What were your thoughts? Why did you play? Would you recommend it? This thread is about sharing our personal accomplishments and engaging one another about the games we have played!

If you are new to this thread for the year, feel free to jump in any time between now and the end of the year. If you have questions or need help, feel free to hit me up! For reference, here's a couple of past threads so you can see how people have approached their participation, their list making, etc.

Ha ha, oh boy. Mega Man ZX Advent is for people who thought the Mega Man Z series was too easy. Yes, MMZXA starts hard, and only gets harder, crazy mean bosses and insta-death traps await. Also an end game that is the most difficult trial of hell I've personally endured, in any Mega Man branded game, with my ~27 years playing the franchise. All I can say is, if you think you're awesome at Mega Man games, but have not beaten MMZXA (on even Normal Difficulty), you're in for a surprise. So let's say you have the patience to play this, what does it have to offer besides sadistic difficulty?

MMZXA has got seriously nice 2D sprite and background art, very professionally created. Sprite animation is above average too, and the electronica OST overall is highly decent. All major cutscene dialogue is fully dubbed, a rarity for DS. The most dramatic cutscenes are actually fully animated, anime style. (Although MMZXA's plot itself is a bunch of drivel so it hardly matters.) Controls are super psycho tight (they have to be for a game like this). Also as with MMZX, you can choose to play as a boy or girl, which slightly alters the plot a bit. All of this is pretty on par with the first Mega Man ZX though. So what's new? Aside from being even MORE difficult that is.

The map is actually functional now, despite the "metroidvania" aspects dialed back a bit from the last game. Although the action-RPG elements are dialed up a bit in comparison. There are a lot of NPCs to chat up for side quests, which unlock stuff like mini-games and item upgrades when completed. (One of the mini-games is an 8-bit styled classic Mega Man challenge stage.) The biggest change though, is now when you defeat robot masters, you can actually turn into them directly, rather than just use their powers. Every robot master form has idiosyncratic special abilities, so you can replay stages and find new power-ups and such using them. There's something like 16 different boss forms to acquire. Oh did I mention this game has a LOT of bosses? And I didn't even mention the copious mid-bosses yet.

So on that note I don't recommend this game to the average gamer whatsoever, it will likely cause DS shaped dents in your walls. Truly Mega Man ZX Advent spits right in the face of casual modern gamers. But if you are a Mega Man series veteran, especially one who didn't foolishly ignore the Z series, you will enjoy Mega Man ZX Advent. And by enjoy, I mean relish the kind of white knuckle challenge that only Inti Creates ever brought to this franchise, way beyond anything Capcom dared to try. Enjoy the spikes!

I actually found ZX to be harder than ZX Advent overall, though ZX Advent had a harder beginning. Or maybe it was just that one stage in ZX where you had to race the lava that killed me OVER AND OVER AND OVER.

I do agree that it was super neat how you transform into the bosses. And they didn't shy away from having a bunch of crazy bosses, rather than forcing everyone to be small and humanoid like the main character.

It's a real shame that there wasn't a sequel, because that sequel hook at the end is massive.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.

Well, here's my first game of the new year! Had to have something to try out the shiny new Everdrive N8 on, and this is one of the first ones I booted up. I've never bothered sticking with a Bonk game before, so imagine my surprise that I managed to make it to the end of this one. It actually makes a pretty decent transition from the TG-16, too. It's clearly not all that hard, though, if I can make it through the first time. A few tricky bits, nothing more.

Now I need to boot Little Samson, because it's likely the closest my NES will ever get to running the actual game. Wish I'd bought it on eBay back in the day when it was selling for around $50...

Another of the anime inspired games that graced PC land around the turn of the century. Oni takes a lot of very obvious cues from Ghost in the Shell, to the point that I suspect Bungie was unable to acquire the license to GitS but were halfway through the game they were making and said "well, I'll make my own Ghost in the Shell, with blackjack and hookers!"

The game plays similarly to Bloodrayne and Bloodrayne 2, though both of those came out afterwards. You will spend most of your time in melee combat, utilizing a variety of kicks, punches, throws, and some special moves. You do have one slot for a firearm, though ammo tends to be scarce. You will frequently find yourself picking up weapons off of defeated enemies as they tend to have the best guns. The firearms are a supplement to the main combat; the SMG can kill one or two people at close range before running out of ammo, while the energy rifle is great for nailing tough enemies at range before they can close. Both you and your enemies are vulnerable to being disarmed, so you need to be prepared when you bust out your gun. By the same token, you need to be ready to rush an enemy with a gun if necessary to keep the damage off.

This leads to the biggest problem I had with the game: the schizophrenic difficulty. If you rounded a corner and an enemy was waiting with an SMG say goodbye to a large chunk of your health. Or if the enemies decided to counter all of your attacks then you'll be eating the pain. The same enemy fought the same way will sometimes wipe the floor with you and other times will stay utterly stunlocked and pose no threat. Because your defensive options are fairly limited you end up having to learn how to best apply pressure and safely attack enemies, and even then things can get tense. This is not helped by the checkpoint save system; there were a few instances where it felt like it was far too long between checkpoints and the hardest stuff would always be at the end of a segment.

That said, when the game isn't being an asshole it is quite fun to play. It isn't too long and the combat is quite fun. When you learn how to pull off the variety of moves you have you gain a lot of options. A few moves are finicky to pull off, but they tend not to be worth the trouble anyway. I found that running throws did a lot of work for me, as they were easy to connect with and tended to clear space. And the game seems to encourage you tossing enemies off of high places.

Games Beaten: 2015201620172018Blizzard Entertainment Software Developer - All comments and views are my own and not representative of the company.

Oni is a really weird title in the Bungie library. Marathon and Myth were their bread and butter prior to Halo and Microsoft, and when you consider those three series encompass FPS, RT Tactics, and more FPS, ONI stands out like a sore thumb. But I'm really glad they decided to try it, as I'm sure it forced them to grow as a company.

I played Oni many many years ago when it was first released, PC version. I didn't enjoy the game at that time, but I still love its cover art. I've sometimes thought of going back and giving it another shot though.